Title Title in Book Two: The Fifteenth Year of the Third Millennium of the Common Era

Feeling better.
Still can’t regulate my bloody temperature. Sweating like a fat guy in the Amazon one minute than colder than an anorexic in Antarctica the next.
Voice is coming back, though, so hopefully that will be good news for work tomorrow.
Because it is me (seriously… love my family, but I know 1million percent everything about me would be different had I grown up in a different family)… because it is me… I’m doing chores today. If I have energy to get out of bed, I have energy to do laundry, recycling, trash, dishes, and clean the toilet.

Heard back on another opening I was looking forward to. I’ll back up a little.
My law school, like every law school, has a Career Help office. An office intended to make it easier for you to find a job after graduation because that significantly impacts their National Rating. In short, it is in a University’s best interest to get their students employed. However, much like the National Unemployment Statistics… schools have discovered that actually getting people employed is hard work… so instead, they fudge the numbers. The National Statistics are full of bullshit trickery and if you’ve ever wanted it explained to you please read THIS.

Colleges, likewise, can state employment even if you have a Law Degree but are working at Burger King in a desperate attempt to repay outrageous college loans. In other words, schools are no longer properly motivated to assist their students in employment.

This was made glaringly clear all three years of Law School when the Career Offices continually said “20% of the jobs out there will be posted on-line, in the newspaper, or in hiring sites. 70% of the jobs will be from referrals or networking. 10% of the jobs left, we might be able to help you with.” Yeah… why do you get a salary, then? Just curious… because… if you do less than a Newspaper Classified section… and, for some ridiculous reason, aren’t doing anything to help us crack that 70%… why does our tuition pay for your existence?

That being said… I’ve been hitting the 20% and 10% markets hard for the last several months and asking lawyer friends for help. Apparently, even the 70% jobs are having issues. The job I heard back from today? Friend told me about a valued co-worker who was leaving an office that is already swamped with work and should be hiring an attorney. So… clearly, one attorney position will be opening up soon… if not two. Turns out after a meeting today? NOpe. Not at all. At least not this fiscal year. Because… same story as I hear from every other place. Money. The money isn’t there to hire people. EVEN at my vastly discounted rate as a First Year Associate. When a government office can’t hire an attorney at 45k a year… that is a problem. And this is why the entire job process has really encouraged me to investigate economic issues of the present time. And they are maddening. Honestly. I know there are Section 8 Housing individuals that abuse the process… how do I know this? Because I work in Corrections, have worked in Ministry, and my sister worked at a University in Georgia. I know that some poor people will NEVER get out of that world no matter what steps are taken to assist them. But why do the bad apples of one group justify the bad apples of another? When wealth is so heavily concentrated… it doesn’t get reinvested. When 15 Americans (right now!) could buy every inch of land in this country without going bankrupt… but yet… we have no money for Child Advocates or Environmental Lawyers or Police and Fire or Education or Health Care or Prosecutors or Public Defenders. We live in a world, right now, where people are getting super pissed at the prospect of the government shilling out $80 billion dollars in programs to educate the children of this nation… as though $80 billion was far too much to spend on children or education… and yet $817.8 billion has been allocated for the war in Iraq since 2003.

Yeah… I’m sure my political leanings will even out again at some point. But it is becoming pretty clear lately. The republican presidential candidates keep talking about getting the Government involved in social issues (doesn’t sound like States-Rights Republicans to me!)… the Republican candidates keep talking about reducing the deficit but have no real answers for how to get people back to work.... yeah. After hearing all of these debates and doing my research… none of the candidates deserve the office… but, in the words of my Godfather, I didn’t leave the Republican Party… the Republican Party left me. They can dance for their giant donation checks from big corporate interests… unfortunately, I already saw the man behind the current.